Federal Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has asked Telstra to identify pits that contain asbestos and develop a program to remove the deadly substance.

The request follows concerns that contractors and the public in some towns and suburbs may have been exposed to asbestos after the pits were accessed for the installation of cables to carry the National Broadband Network.

Mr Shorten told ABC News there are eight million pits across Australia and between 10-20 per cent could contain asbestos in some form.

Not all of the pits will be used for the NBN roll out.

However Vicki Hamilton from the Gippsland Asbestos Related Diseases Support group insists Telstra would have know which pits were potentially contaminated.

"I'm pretty well sure that Telstra did audits on all those pits. They'd know their pits and what they're actually constructed of," Ms Hamilton says.

"It's their place to know what they've got.

"If they were going to be subcontracting out, they should have made audits available to the contractors that were going to be doing that job and they should have made sure the contractors had some health and safety around asbestos."

Ms Hamilton says pits constructed before 1990 would have some form of asbestos in them.

She says a suitably qualified asbestos contractor should have lined the pit before works began.

Ms Hamilton is urging the public to stay away from pits where works are being carried out.

"I have no idea what sort of fibre leakage there would be from those pits if they are being dismantled or broken up," she says.

"You really have to stay away from them... they're everywhere, I've got three in my street."

While Telstra has pledged to follow the correct processes as the rollout continues, attention is turning to who might be held liable for the risk to public health.

Maurice Blackburn principal asbestos lawyer Jane McDermott says the telco must shoulder the blame rather than the Commonwealth.

"It's far more more related to Telstra," she says.

"You know, the PMG or Telecom has now become a public company Telstra, they're the people responsible for this and they've accepted that."